Fixed Idea

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

There is a very fine line between one-pointedness and looping. Of course, in order to achieve impressive results in anything, we need a focus of attention. The thinner the blade, the sharper and more effective it cuts. But when any one idea obscures the whole picture of the world, a person becomes like a Poincaré being.

This term describes the thought experiment of the mathematician Henri Poinquere about a certain creature from a two-dimensional world, to whom it is impossible to explain what the third dimension is, and to whom it is impossible to reach from this very third dimension. You can do any passes with your hands, sit on a split straight from a somersault, blow up fireworks right in front of his nose, but he simply does not have room in his mind to think in such categories.

I don’t know if the plot from the movie "The Power of Thought" about the first European ships on the shores of America is true - or it’s fiction, but the image is beautiful anyway. It says that the Indians were simply not able to notice the appearance of ships on the horizon, because such a phenomenon was not in their picture of the world - and the brain simply did not perceive. This is called a negative hallucination - when a person does not see what is. For example, men often hallucinate negatively the oil in the refrigerator - it lies right in front of their noses, but until the wife comes up and shows it, the oil does not seem to exist for them. This is because in the course of evolution, men developed a natural farsightedness - it was necessary to hunt a mammoth, tracking it, peering into the distance, but not looking under the nose. Likewise, the Indians - their brains simply, they say, did not see the ships. The shaman, being the most advanced, noticed unusual waves on the sea surface, and in an attempt to understand their nature, he began to see new unusual outlines. And then he already - from mind to mind - transmitted this new knowledge to all his fellow tribesmen.

Thinking stereotypes exist for convenience. These are such proven schemes, templates for quick use. Instincts, reflexes - all this in order not to waste time thinking about when you need to quickly respond in order to save a life. If we re-invent every time how to brush our teeth in the morning, we will never go anywhere. Civilization would not have progressed far if there were no stereotypes. In the synthesis of the new, the already existing is always involved. Music is composed from already existing notes, the artist draws with already invented paints, at every step we have to obey certain rules and laws: gravity, causality, the law of conservation of energy and the laws of the Russian Federation (whatever they may be sometimes). And, according to the theory of chaos, the system cannot have more than 5% chaos, otherwise the system will destroy itself.

But on the other hand, if we always begin to follow only stereotypes, given programs, traditions, a long-established way of life, then there will be no development. Sometimes it is really necessary to take a step outside the system. And for this there are rebels, revolutionaries, passionaries, leaders, avant-garde, heretics and other restless. There cannot be many of them, but they always bring a new dimension to people's lives, a new era begins with them, a new round of civilization. True, they are almost always burned, crucified or anathematized - in a literal or metaphorical sense, in general, they usually end up badly. Because most people do not like to start thinking differently than they already think. In system-vector psychology, which describes the unconscious of a person from the point of view of the theory of the development of a flock at the dawn of mankind, such people are called carriers of the urethral vector. They always have a Mission - with a capital letter, they are restless in the usual course of things, in the comfort zone, they need to create something fundamentally new, even if it is at the cost of life. Such people are characterized by the presence of a fixed idea. But their difference from Poincaré's being is that their picture of the world is wide - much broader than those whose fixed idea is to maintain the status quo. They accept many things, they are ready to try different forms, they are inclined to experiments of any kind. Such fiscal ideas have always moved humanity forward. Thanks to them, civilization arose, thanks to them, it entered all possible dead ends of development and only thanks to them it will be able to get out of them. In system-vector psychology, 8 vectors are distinguished and it is said that in the modern world every person is a carrier of at least four vectors, and 1-2 of them are leading. Their names are taken from the erogenous zone that this vector initiates. For example, there are still people with a pronounced anal vector - among other things, they are prone to retention. They love historical encyclopedias, their vector is directed to the past (as opposed to urethralists, focused strictly on the future), they are a little or very boring, archaic, puritanical, procedural, it is important for them to comply with certain rules and protocols, some kind of strictly defined structure and the usual course of things. In their vocabulary there are many expressions such as "since ancient times in Russia", "in my time", "as was the custom among our ancestors." They have a longing for a certain "Golden Age", which was in a long-lost past, and to which everyone must return, whether they like it or not. Their idea is fix: "Everyone should stay in their places!" with a vector into a smooth, gradual and inevitable return to the lost paradise. Also, according to system-vector psychology, representatives of the anal vector are characterized by cruelty up to sadism, when they do not want to obey them. It was the analniks who burned the urethralists at the stake, as soon as they hinted that the Earth does not rest on three whales and a large turtle, and the sun does not revolve around this acrobatic structure. Both have their own important function - the anal vector is the preservation of accumulated experience, the urethral is evolution, the opening of new horizons for development. When the vectors are developed, everyone simply fulfills their functions and peacefully coexist, when they are in an imbalance, the urethralists arrange bloody revolutions, and the anals resist innovations in an equally bloody way. How to check what kind of obsession you have?

It's very simple: when your fix idea does not destroy all other spheres of existence and is not brought to aggressive fanaticism, everything is in order with it. As soon as all other interests disappear and change the notion “the opposite of truth is another truth” to the notion “the opposite of truth is obscurantism, hereticism, confusion and sin” - that's it, hello. You are already a Poincaré being.

Genius in one thing and complete helplessness in all other spheres of existence has not yet brought happiness to anyone. In a full-fledged version, a person is ready for healthy and satisfying relationships in a couple and in society - due to the fact that he is already in healthy and satisfying with himself. He is ready for conscious parenting, he knows how to handle one of the most precious tools - his own body, and he knows how to interact with his partner's body in a sexual sense. A fully developed person loves art and for him it is not limited to a couple of directions and does not stop at some historical epoch. He appreciates the experience of his ancestors and is ready to go beyond it - he is open to new things. He does not sit in one place, professing the idea of "where he was born - there he fit" - he is a cosmopolitan and benefits where he is, no matter where and to whom. We say that all living beings have the same nature and each has an equal potential - only it manifests itself in all differently. There are no better and worse people, everyone is good enough, just someone at some point behaves, sowing the seeds of suffering, and someone - happiness, but this is constantly changing. We say that everyone is free to choose how to live and what to do, as long as it does not infringe on the freedom of others.

We say that life is very ambiguous, that it cannot be painted with just a couple of colors - it has an inexhaustible number of shades and dimensions - we just do not know about everything. And the more mysteries of the universe are discovered by science, the more questions appear - and it will never end. There will always be more questions than answers, and therefore, to think that you know the answers to all questions is ridiculous by definition. Only those who do not consider themselves as such are truly wise - a wise person is always a beginner, an amateur, a first-grader. As soon as the graduate's crown or quadrangular cap is worn, wisdom is nullified.

As either Socrates or Democritus said (scientists are confused), "I only know that I do not know anything." This is not about the devaluation of your experience, this is about the willingness to accept new things in unlimited quantities. I also really like the way Steve Jobs put it: "Stay hungry, stay reckless."